# Bearded Dragon Activity Recognition Pipeline: An AI-Based Approach to Behavioural Monitoring

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17987 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.17987/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 3 of its 33 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [YOLOv12: Attention-Centric Real-Time Object Detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12524/) (2025)
- [YOLOv11 Optimization for Efficient Resource Utilization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14790/) (2024)
- [SOD-YOLOv8 -- Enhancing YOLOv8 for Small Object Detection in Traffic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.04786/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Traditional monitoring of bearded dragon (Pogona Viticeps) behaviour is time-consuming and prone to errors. This project introduces an automated system for real-time video analysis, using You Only Look Once (YOLO) object detection models to identify two key behaviours: basking and hunting. We trained five YOLO variants (v5, v7, v8, v11, v12) on a custom, publicly available dataset of 1200 images, encompassing bearded dragons (600), heating lamps (500), and crickets (100). YOLOv8s was selected as the optimal model due to its superior balance of accuracy (mAP@0.5:0.95 = 0.855) and speed. The system processes video footage by extracting per-frame object coordinates, applying temporal interpolation for continuity, and using rule-based logic to classify specific behaviours. Basking detection proved reliable. However, hunting detection was less accurate, primarily due to weak cricket detection (mAP@0.5 = 0.392). Future improvements will focus on enhancing cricket detection through expanded datasets or specialised small-object detectors. This automated system offers a scalable solution for monitoring reptile behaviour in controlled environments, significantly improving research efficiency and data quality.